摘 要

谭恩美的《接骨师之女》在2001年出版。这本书中的中国元素为她吸引了很多美国的读者。本论文由三个部分组成。第一部分简要分析和介绍了小说的内容，其次介绍了文学中的创伤理论。在这一部分中，三个主要角色描述了小说中的每一个人物，以及他们对经受到的创伤的不同反应。更重要的是，它主要介绍了造成创伤的主要因素。最后是关于创伤的回复及恢复的重要意义。最后一部分提到小说作者谭恩美最终与她的母亲和好。本论文拟在通过对《接骨师之女》中的创新型分析来吸引更多关于文学中的创伤研究。

关键词：接骨师之女；创伤；原因；恢复

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Demonstration 1

2.1 A Brief Survey of Trauma Theory in Literature 1

2.2 The Trauma the Characters Suffered 2

2.2.1 Suicide of the Grandmother 2

2.2.2 Inextricable Trauma of Ru Ling 3

2.2.3 Retaliative Behaviors of Ruth 4

2.3 The Main Causes Leading to the Trauma 5

2.3.1 Historical and Social Background 5

2.3.2 Cultural Differences Between the East and the West 6

2.3.3 Psychological Stress in Childhood and Adlescence 7

2.4 The Characters’ Recovery from the Trauma 7

2.4.1 Ru Ling’s Trauma Narrative About the Whole Family 7

2.4.2 Consciousness of Personal Identification of Two Generations 8

2.5 The Significance of the Recovery 9

2.5.1 Allaying Contradiction of Three Generations 9

2.5.2 Blending Cultures of Different Countries 9

2.5.3 Reflecting the Emotion of Amy Tan 10

1. Conclusion 11

Works Cited................................................................................................................12

Bibliography 13

1. Introduction

The Bonesetter 's daughter is Amy Tan's fourth novel. It was published in 2001.We can say that it is her most autobiographical and moving masterpiece interpreting Chinese immigrants' mother-daughter relationship. "The Bonesetter's Daughter" also continues with Amy Tan's dominating theme: cultural conflicts between the Americanized daughter and her Chinese immigrant mother. All this may be drawn from the pursuit of Amy Tan's spiritual home and cultural identity. The book usually unfolds from the daughter's resisting her mother's influence to the final reconciliation of mother and daughter. In fact, such reconciliation not only embodies the compromise of the two cultures and two generations, but to a greater extent should be regarded as the daughter's compromise to her mother. With a strong cultural meaning, the novel shows the younger generation who is deeply influenced by Western civilization, finally changes and approves of mother's civilization.

The Bonesetter's Daughter emphasizes the importance of the mothers in defining the identities of the daughters. Spanning three generations, it centers on the lives of three women which include Precious Auntie (the grandmother), Ru Ling (the mother) and Ruth (the daughter).

2. Demonstration

2.1 A Brief Survey of Trauma Theory in Literature

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, the term “trauma” means “an injury or a mental condition caused by severe shock, especially when the harmful effects last for a long time”. However, considering a variety of contexts under which the term “trauma”is used, it is obvious that the trauma dose not only means the physical and visible wounds, but also implies emotional turbulence or invisible influences.

Cathy Caruth said, “ Freud used the word metaphorically to emphasize how the mind can be pierced and wounded by events, giving graphic force to his description of the way in which the mind can be thoughts of as being enveloped by a kind of skin, or protective shield.”(Caruth 10)

In his famous collective book Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Freud explains the concept of trauma. He asserts that the trauma is as same as an event which makes the psychological process confused, for the event itself was too sudden or too extreme to adapt and decode it for the mind. He also stresses that trauma is a kind of experience and this experience can not be accessed by the ordinary pattern. Therefore, it results in the disturbance of the mode of operation of the entire psychology.

Nowadays Cathy Caruth’s definition about the trauma is well accepted. In its most general definition, trauma describes an overwhelming experience of sudden or catastrophic events in which the response to the events occurs in the often delayed, uncontrolled repetitive appearance of hallucinations and other intrusive phenomenon. (Caruth 5)

Therefore, the traumatic experience is comprehended as a fixed and timeless photographic negative which is reserved in an unlocatable place of the brain; however, it maintains the ability to interrupt the consciousness.

Traumatic event in an individual’s life is defined by its intensity, by the subject’s incapacity to respond adequately to it, and by the upheaval and long-lasting effects that it brings about in the psychological organization. And the scope of trauma research is wide. It mainly concentrates on the traumatic experiences of social vulnerable groups such as children and women subjected to domestic violence and abuse, rape, veteran witnessing the inhumanity of war in the battlefield and minority groups living in the margin of mainstream society and suffering from the racial oppression, etc. The focus of trauma study in American and European is to show the traumatic experiences of the marginalized individuals or groups in order to revise and subvert the official records of history to guide them out of the shackle of trauma.